A site of random things and thoughts from a random Emily.

say no to santa

Last week I saw (for probably the millionth time) someone posting a photo of their child with Santa. Accompanied either by a “he hated it” or “we were surprised she did so well” sentiment. And I thought to myself…what a wonderful world…

Ha, just kidding, I didn’t think of that song until just now. But basically that’s what I did. I thought about how nice it is that my children are grown and don’t care about Santa (and haven’t for years). How I don’t have to stand in any long lines, or worry about buying tickets to a gross, overpriced breakfast with a 100 other screaming children.

And then the next day (and the next day, and the next) I saw someone post a photo with their one-year-old. And I was like, “Wait a minute, I have one of those…”

In that moment I questioned a little bit of my parenting. Should I have felt a more motherly push to realize that Arlo needs a photo with Santa? Or some social obligation to test his ability to be held by a complete stranger? I mean, what will I Instagram now??

Maybe this is the moment I realize that Arlo will grow up to only tell stories about how he was forgotten as the youngest sibling.

I pretty quickly decided against taking Arlo to meet Santa. Partially because we haven’t even bought a tree, sent cards, or gotten out any decorations yet–so we definitely don’t have time for a visit with Santa in the coming weeks. But mostly because it didn’t seem worth it to try.

I mean, I’m not judging anyone that took photos, and Santa at the 34th Street Macy’s will probably need to be checked off the list one day. But I realized that for us the only reason I cared was because I saw others’ photos on social media. And that is definitely the wrong reason to care about anything.

So here’s to another fun step towards caring even less about what anyone thinks. And possibly another step closer to ruining Arlo’s childhood memories and/or being the poster mom for all those out there who also don’t have time for the old man in the red suit. Or the tiny elf that sits on the shelf. Or time to have a tree up by December 13th…

But hey, we’ll have Snapchat memories, so I’m not skipping the really important things.